https://twitter.com/RepMarkMeadows/status/1039582218832805888
Accused 9/11 plotters ask for new Gitmo judge to be replaced
Sept. 11 (UPI) – On the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks Tuesday, five men accused of masterminding the plot to hijack airliners and crash them into buildings face trial at the Navy's prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The proceedings, though, have already hit a snag – three of the defendants are asking the newly appointed judge, Marine Col. Keith Parrella, to recuse himself from the case. Attorneys for accused mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other accused ringleaders said Parrella has conflicts of interest and bias.
They say Parrella is too cozy with prosecutors from their time together in the Department of Justice's Counter-terrorism Section in 2014 and 2015.
"Connection to a party with the litigation is a classic reason why judge's recuse themselves," defense attorney James Connell III told reporters. "I would feel much less concern if he hadn't worked for the same specific unit that much of the prosecution worked for."
The attorneys also cite Parella's pending appointment to a security position with the Marine Corps next summer. They say that means he'll have to leave the case, meaning another judge will need to be appointed, and add to the delays.
Initially, Parrella resisted their request
"I'm qualified in according with [the military's requirements] and we're moving ahead," he said
Later Monday, he said he would weigh the request overnight.
Defense attorneys questioned Parrella for several hours, asking about his knowledge of Islam, his relationship with the prosecution and his feelings about the terrorist attacks.
With each question, Parrella appeared to became more agitated.
"What this feels like is a quiz of the military judge," Parrella said. "I'm not going to stand up here and be quizzed."
The Sept. 11 terror attacks killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and in Somerset County, Pa.
Five men, including Mohammed, have yet to face trial for their role in planning the attacks six years after they were arraigned. Three have asked that Parrella recuse himself.
Originally, Army Col. James Pohl presided over the case but he retired for personal reasons. Parrella was appointed Monday.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2018/09/11/Accused-911-plotters-ask-for-new-Gitmo-judge-to-be-replaced/7691536668352/
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The new military judge in the Sept. 11 trial said under questioning by defense attorneys Monday that he had read selections of the case’s six-year record but saw no need to postpone hearings while he caught up on the pretrial proceedings that had come before him in the complex, death penalty case.
Marine Col. Keith Parrella, the judge who got the job two weeks ago, spent his first morning on the bench in the five-man conspiracy case fielding questions from defense attorneys about his capacity to take on the case, and rejecting suggestions that he should learn in detail what came before him before continuing.
“I’ve been detailed by a competent authority and we’re moving out,” said Parrella, a 24-year career Marine officer who has served as a military judge for a little over two years. He added that he did not volunteer for the position and is expecting to take on a new nonjudicial job next summer.
The 9/11 case’s long-serving trial judge, Army Col. James L. Pohl, announced his retirement Aug. 27 and assigned Parrella to take over in the same court order. In a possible sign of haste, Parrella said he was sworn in by telephone that day, standing alone in an undisclosed location, with Pohl administering the oath on the other end of the line.
Parrella, 44, said he would not allow anyone to rush him to make decisions. But he said, he believed he could hear legal arguments this week in the case, and make rulings at his own pace while reading six years of motions, more than 20,000 pages of pretrial transcripts and a classified record whose size is not known.
On Monday, Parrella told the defense lawyers, some of whom asked him to recuse himself, that he had done some pick-and-choose reading in the two weeks since getting the job — specifically to include the 2012 transcript of his predecessor’s questioning by defense attorneys, a traditional process in military courts to probe for conflicts, bias and qualifications to serve as a trial judge.
More:
https://journaltimes.com/ap/guantanamo-judge/article_c8cfc703-2ebe-5a40-9e2a-6d3987d1d0e6.html